Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Announces Sanctions on Pompeo and Others:
— Hua Chunying 华春莹 (@SpokespersonCHN) January 20, 2021
🔗https://t.co/DE8JOonqbo pic.twitter.com/gJJm3eViF0
As President Joe Biden was sworn in to office, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) imposed sanctions on former Trump administration officials, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former national security adviser Robert O’Brien, in response to their tough-on-China policies.
The announcement came a day after Pompeo declared the CCP’s repression of Uyghur Muslims in the Xinjiang region a “genocide.”
The Chinese regime sanctioned 28 people on January 20, 2021. A foreign ministry spokesperson accused them of “seriously violated China’s sovereignty,” adding that they were “responsible” for “a series of crazy moves” which “seriously disrupted China-U.S. relations.”
Among those sanctioned are high-level officials in former President Donald Trump’s administration, including Pompeo; O’Brien; former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro; former deputy national security adviser Matthew Pottinger; former Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar; former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft; David Stilwell, former assistant state secretary for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs; and Keith Krach, former undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy, and the environment.
John Bolton, Trump’s previous national security adviser, and Stephen Bannon, who previously served as Trump’s White House chief strategist, also were sanctioned.
Those sanctioned and their immediate family members are barred from entering mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau, according to the spokesperson. The individuals and “companies and institutions associated” with them will also be restricted from doing business with China, the statement added.
The former U.S. officials sanctioned were involved in the Trump administration’s response to threats posed by the CCP. These include sanctions on CCP officials for rights abuses in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, banning U.S. investments into Chinese companies with ties to the military, and convincing allies to block Chinese telecom giant Huawei from 5G networks around the world over national security threats.
